


The New Age

by BellMurphyGirls



Series: The New Age Series [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Clarke Griffin deserves nice things, Comedy, Drama, F/M, Friendship, Gun Violence, Half-Siblings, Major Original Character(s), Minor Original Character(s), Multi, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, POV Original Character, Romance, Sibling Banter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2020-10-17 12:56:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20621393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BellMurphyGirls/pseuds/BellMurphyGirls
Summary: In a world where Earth has been decimated and the only humans live in a space shuttle known as the Ark, two delinquents were just trying to survive when suddenly their lives are flipped upside down. The two half-sisters were launched down to Earth with 98 other teenage delinquents to test if the Earth was survivable again. And they find out that while Earth itself is no longer toxic it doesn't mean that they are safe. This is a story of family, love, war, and drama. This is our story of what happens when The 100 are sent down by themselves to survive on a post-apocalyptic war-ruled earth where only the strong survive and the weak, well, good luck.





	1. Birthday or Death Day?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Everyone! Thanks for giving our story a try! This story will follow Canon for the most part but it will also branch off because while this is the story of The 100 it is also Nova and Cara's story. This story will be told in two POVs and will switch between them often. As this is Cara and Nova's story some things that happen on screen may still happen, but will not be mentioned as Cara and Nova may not be there for them. Also some major plot points may not happen but most will. Remember everyone, this is Nova and Cara's world and we're just living in it! So take a seat, get comfortable, and please enjoy their world!

Cara

Days on the Ark were pretty redundant as of lately, especially now that I was in lock up. Luckily for me, I wasn’t alone. My best friend Nova Grey, my partner in crime, literally; was locked up with me. Even with the controversial laws of the ark, she happens to be my sister too. I know what you’re thinking, nobody's supposed to have a sibling but thanks to our father that wasn’t the case. Our father, Sargent Elliot Turner, who is a guard on the Ark, clearly knew his way around the stations. We were the biggest loophole around, our father kept it on a need to know basis. Nova is the closest thing to family I have, other than my mother, and that made her pretty damn important to me. The two of us ran a makeshift casino together, we gained a lot of frequent betters and once word spread people couldn’t stop coming, they were addicted. I would set out to find the perfect location and made sure to change them often enough so we wouldn’t get caught. Nova acted as the brawn of the operation, she’s the person you didn’t want to have to cross if your debt wasn’t paid. But don’t let her fool you, she’s more than just muscle, the medical trainee part of her might just be nice enough to patch them up afterwards, though she’d need something for herself as well.

  
Everything had been going perfectly for a while and we had steady groups of customers and payment flow, that is until one of the higher up’s sons bet away a weeks worth of rations and most of his possessions. Bitterly he decided to turn the both of us in, doing everything in his power to not have to pay his debts. We’ve been in lock up ever since.  
Today seemed different, there were more guards lurking around than usual. Normally to keep ourselves entertained Nova and I would gamble in between meal times, here we couldn’t get away with as much but someone thought it would be a good idea to let us have a deck of cards. Though that was mainly the fault of me persuading one of the younger guards, I was still glad I managed to get us something to do. I could feel other prisoners eyes on me waiting for the signal that we’d be starting soon. I couldn’t give them one though, not today, not with all of the guard’s eyes making me feel uneasy. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something secret was going on.

“Nova...are you thinking the same thing I am right now?” I kept my voice at a whisper and leaned closer to her.

  
“It’s hard to think with all these eyes on me.” She grabbed her fork and started pushing her food around her plate.

  
“Something’s going on, there has to be.”

  
“What should we do?”

  
“I don’t think there’s much we can do, but maybe we’ll catch someone talking about it and gain some information.”

  
Nova nodded in agreement before getting up to get rid of her tray. I wasn’t going to be able to gain much information tonight, they were starting to gather us up to go back to our cells.

  
They put Nova and I together, figuring we’d be less of a hassle that way, plus it allowed us to play cards. Before the door closed I caught word of something one guard was relaying to another. It wasn’t much but he said “they had to be prepared.” I tried to sleep but my mind kept me awake for hours going through the possibilities. Eventually my mind had no choice but to give in and let me get some rest.

  
I was woken up by a scream, and not just any scream. Nova. I heard a guard start calling for assistance, and two more came running in as Nova was still trying to get the first one to let go of her wrist.

  
“What the hell is going on?” I asked as I jumped out of bed. Then it hit me that today was September the 13th...her birthday. It was Nova’s 18th birthday and that could only mean one thing, she was now legally able to be floated.

  
I ran over and punched one of the guards square in the jaw knocking him back enough to throw off his balance. Another guard must have called for backup because three more arrived, there was nothing I could do. Nova and I were completely outnumbered. Two guards held us both, the fifth turned around and that’s when I noticed that the sixth guard was carrying a metal case. He opened it up and placed a bracelet in number five’s hand before taking another out for himself. As they fastened them securely on our right wrists, Nova and I looked over at each other confused. _Was she not getting executed?_

  
They led or rather pushed us out into the hallway where we were greeted by a line of all the other prisoners. Thoughts began racing through my mind, a lot of the kids still had a numerous amount of time before they turned eighteen and it seemed like they were planning to get rid of all of us.

  
We passed by solitary, following the path of the prisoners in front of us and noticed Dr. Abigail Griffin talking to her daughter, no one really knew why but she was separated from everyone from the start, only allowed contact from the guards. As we walked closer I noticed that the daughter was freaking out, a crowd of guards forming to restrain her. “Prisoner 319!” They shouted trying to gain control. That’s when Dr. Griffin stepped in, “You’re going to the ground, Clarke,” I heard her say before looking back at Nova.

  
“You heard that too, right?”

  
“The ground? Is it even survivable?”

  
“I guess we’re going to be the ones that find out.”

  
“Great.”

  
“Hey it beats being locked up.”

  
“Unless we die first.”

  
I rolled my eyes as I stepped into the Dropship. Looking around, I scanned the room for one familiar face, Finn Collins. Before lockup we didn’t really know each other, but I guess being arrested had one perk to it. I grabbed Nova’s arm as he caught sight of us and smiled before pointing out the seats beside him. I lead us over and strapped myself in. All we had to do was survive and we’d be free. That’s what I kept telling myself.

  
“Cara Crawford, fancy meeting you here,” Finn stated playfully.

  
“Of course, how could they leave us behind?” I replied with a laugh.

  
“You’re right about that,” Finn replied with a smirk planted across his face.

  
A commotion caught Finn’s attention. He took it upon himself to cut himself free from his seat belt.

  
“What are you doing? You’re going to end up floated this time,” I teased.

  
“If you wanted to die that badly we could of left you on the Ark,” Nova said, a smirk on her face. Finn shrugged and floated away, using the zero gravity to his favor. The walls of the ship began to shake frantically, rattling sounds echoing all around us. Others began to float out of their seats, seemingly wanting to follow Finn’s lead.

  
“Ready to not die?” I turned and asked Nova.

  
“Hopefully,” She responded with a laugh before gripping on to the sides of her seat. I knew she was scared, as was I. But I also knew that she wasn’t about to show any sign of weakness in front of the other 98 people in this ship, that just wasn’t her thing. I reached out and grabbed her hand. She smiled and silently thanked me before squeezing it tight. I squeezed back as we braced for impact. The turbulence picked back up and before I realized what was happening bodies started flying every which way. I ducked as one of them flew towards where Nova and I were sitting.

Nova wasn’t paying attention to him, too worried about potentially exploding, and ended up getting hit by him as he hit the wall above our heads and bounced down to hit Nova before landing at our feet.

  
“Hey! Watch it! Go float yourself, you dick!” Nova exclaimed, rubbing the back of her head with the hand that wasn’t currently holding mine in a death grip. Suddenly there was a loud bang and Nova freaked out, “Oh god, oh god, we’re all gonna die.”

  
This was it, we were going to blow up or survive. I squeezed tighter as I hoped for the latter.

Nova

I was terrified. We were going to die I just knew it. The Dropship was hurtling rapidly towards Earth and we were about to die. I gripped Cara’s hand back as tight as I could and squeezed my eyes shut. We began falling faster. And faster. And faster and then- **CRASH.**

  
Silence.

  
I opened my eyes slowly and saw Cara doing the same. We both seemed to realize we were alive at the same time and broke out in twin relieved grins. The seat belt suddenly clicked loose and I took my belt off as quickly as possible, standing up and turning to help Cara do the same.

  
“We’re alive!” I exclaimed to Cara before embracing her in a tight hug.

  
She laughed into the hug and squeezed me back with just as much enthusiasm before pulling back to talk, “We made it, we’re on the ground.”

  
“Speaking of,” I said and kicked at the guy still laying at our feet, “We made it, Jerk, you can get up now.”

  
When he didn’t immediately move I frowned and bent down, turning him over. He looked lifeless as his eyes stared blankly up at me. I stood back up quickly, “Oh!”

  
“Is he?” Cara questioned.

  
“Um, yes?” I said, unsure. I hesitantly crouched back down and pressed my fingers against his carotid. After not feeling anything at all for a good few seconds, I nodded and stood back up and stepped closer to Cara, “Yep, yeah, definitely dead. Wow. I just told him to go float himself and then he died. Did I do this?! Is this what being an executioner feels like?!”

  
Cara grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face her, “Calm down, weirdo, you’d think you’d be handling this better.”

  
“I’m sorry! Do you know how high my adrenaline is right now? Very. Extremely. I’ll chill back down in a minute, I promise.”

  
I took a few deep breaths until I felt back to normal, shrugging Cara hands off my shoulders and taking a few steps away from the dead body. Suddenly, someone yelled something about the door being opened on the lower level. I grinned and dragged Cara over to the ladder. I went down first and waited for her to follow before pushing our way through the crowd to get to the front. I barely had time to register some guy in a guards uniform trying to open the door when I was suddenly pushed aside by a blonde blur who started screaming about the air being toxic.

  
“Go float yourself,” I muttered angrily to her. She turned to glare at me and I noticed it was Clarke Griffin, Princess of the Ark. I knew Clarke because we unfortunately did our medical internship together until first she, and then I, were arrested. I suddenly heard an uproar in the crowd.

  
“She’s Octavia Blake! The girl they found under the floor!”

  
I quickly stepped in front of Cara on instinct when Octavia went to lunge into the crowd to attack. Luckily the guy in the guard uniform held her back. He spoke softly to her before turning back toward the Dropship door lever. I smirked back at Cara before pressing closer to the door. This was it, we were gonna be the first humans on the ground since the apocalypse. I was so ready for this. The door opened and Octavia stepped out onto the door. I quickly went to step out too but guard boy reached an arm out to stop us all from going by. I glared at him but decided to stay on his good side for now. I looked on as Octavia finally jumped down onto the ground.

  
She reached her arms into the air and screamed, “We're back bitches!”

  
And then it was a mad rush to get down the ramp to the ground. I pulled Cara along behind me until our feet hit the dirt, then released her and spun around slowly, taking in the scenery. It was so… green and vibrant and the air was like nothing I’ve ever breathed before. It was so crisp and fresh and I never wanted to go back to the Ark and leave all this behind ever again.

  
“Happy Birthday Nova!” Cara exclaimed from behind me.

  
I turned to her with the brightest grin, “I made it through my 18th birthday, and we’re now pardoned. We’re both gonna live! Best birthday ever!”

  
Cara smiled, “We should probably start exploring now.”

  
I nodded my head, “Maybe you should go check on your boyfriend,” I said in a teasing tone, motioning to where Clarke and Finn were apparently having a conversation.

  
“Not my boyfriend, just a convenient friend with benefits.”

  
I shrugged and smirked before turning away from her and looking over the crowd. I spotted Jasper and Monty a little ways away and walked over to them, “Boys! I believe you owe me a birthday present! Y’all need to make me something to either get me drunk or high by the end of the week.”

  
They grinned and Jasper spoke up, “The second we figure it out you’ll be the first to know.”

  
“I better be.”

  
Monty smirked, “Oh don’t worry we’ll figure it out probably by the end of today, though it might take a week to set it up and make the stuff.”

  
“I’ll hold you to that, Green,” I held one hand out to each of them expectantly. They both reached out and shook one hand. “Good, now get to work boys, I’ve got some scouting to do. If I find anything that might help I’ll let you know.”

  
With that I walked away and back into the Dropship to look for some basic supplies. I glanced back for Cara and saw her talking to Finn, who was now walking with her around the landing site. She was good then, back to searching for supplies. I entered the Dropship and immediately spotted bags in the corner. _It must be the supplies they sent us here with._ I wandered over and grabbed two of the backpacks, emptying out their contents. It didn’t take me long to sort through it all and put everything important back away in the bags and then started in on the other bags. Sorting all the things like rations and stuff that could be used as make-shift medical supplies into one pile and the few extra things like some clothes and jackets into another pile. Then I came across the tents, I grabbed the best looking one and set it aside for Cara and I. Once I was satisfied with our bags and tent I filled one more bag full of rations and another bag full of the things that could be used as medical supplies and hid them away behind a panel in the ship for future use. Then I sorted what was left into different piles for people to go through and find what they needed. I slipped the two bags and tent over my shoulder and continued looking around the ship for weapons. I spotted a metal piece that must’ve gotten jarred in the landing. I grabbed it and yanked hard to pull it all the way free from the wall. It was almost twelve inches long and came to a slight point at the end. I would have to spend time sharpening it and wrapping the would-be handle for a better grip, but it would do well enough as a makeshift weapon. I slipped it into my boot and kept going. I went up and explored all the levels, combing through everything for anything that might be important. On my way I found a roll of black electrical tape that I quickly used to wrap the bottom of my knife in for a temporary handle. I also found a slightly smaller piece of metal that I could fashion into a weapon for Cara, which I promptly wrapped up with some electrical tape as well. Once I got to the top and finished gathering some important things I worked my way back down all the ladders. I made my way back outside and promptly over to Cara. She was now standing by herself off to the side, observing everyone milling around.

I approached her and held her bag out to her, “Hey sis, got our bags packed and our tent picked out. Did you get a good spot picked out for us?”  
Cara smiled and grabbed the bag, “Of course I did. You’re standing in it. It’s close enough to the Dropship that we could get there quickly and it’s slightly higher ground then everyone else so we have a better view of camp. And we will be slightly hidden by the Dropship for when we start up our gambling and trade shop.”

  
I placed a hand over my heart and got fake-teary eyed, “I’m just so proud to be your sister.”

  
She laughed and pushed my shoulder, “Weirdo.”

  
We both laughed for a few moments before I spoke up again, “I also found us knives but I have to find a nice rock to sharpen them before we can properly use them.”

  
“You sit and sharpen them and I’ll keep you company.”

  
“Sounds perfect.”

  
I walked around until I found a couple good sized rocks and then took a seat on a log in what will be our tent area. Cara joined me and kept some small talk going while I sharpened our knives.

Well, it took a little while but finally I was done sharpening. I did Cara’s first so she already had hers safely tucked into her boot.  
“All set,” I announced as I tucked my knife away in my boot as well.

  
Cara opened her mouth to respond but there was suddenly a commotion next to the Dropship. We ran and got there in time to hear Clarke start going on about how we needed to get to Mount Weather. The definitely fake guard spoke up about the privileged doing all the work for a change and while I sort of agreed we still all need to survive. But the crowd was all on his side. I pushed our way closer to the front just in time for some brunet guy to start a fight with Wells Jaha, Prince of the Ark.

  
“I bet the Prince gets his ass kicked,” I whispered to Cara.

  
“I know the Prince gets his ass kicked.”

  
I laughed and watched as the guy kicked Wells’ leg hard right out from under him. Wells jumped back up to try and fight, which I commend really but he doesn’t stand a chance. Just as I thought the fight was gonna really start, Finn flipped off the Dropship and landed in between them, breaking up the fight.

  
“Aw, Finn! You ruin all my fun!” I yelled to him, the rest of the crowd humming in agreement around me.

  
Finn ignored me in favor of telling off the brunet, “Kids got one leg, how about you wait until it’s a fair fight?”

  
It was silent for a second until Octavia strutted her way up and started flirting with Finn.

  
I walked closer with Cara following not far behind, “Damn, Finn, how many side pieces do you need?”

  
He rolled his eyes at me before walking away, the delinquents slowly dispersing back into their smaller groups. I stepped back to be in line with Cara and nodded over to the Blake girl and the guard who were clearly having an argument.

  
“What do you make of that?” I questioned Cara, nodding my head towards them.

  
“I think he's acting protective and suspicious,” She answered back, also examining them. They moved even further away from the group and she spoke up again, “Very suspicious.”

  
“Agreed, we’ll have to figure out why.”

  
I nodded.

  
Cara looked over her shoulder, “looks like they’re gathering a group to head to Mount Weather.”

  
I turned and saw Finn, Clarke, Monty, and Jasper all standing around Wells.

  
“One of us should go with them, I don’t trust them. They’re either going to get killed or get us killed somehow.”

  
Cara nodded in agreement, “it should be me,” she then raised her voice so the group could hear, “I’ll go with you!”

  
“What? I should go, I’m the muscle!” I hissed at her, concern filling my voice.

  
Cara turned back to me with a smile, “And the medic, which is why you should stay. Clarke is going so you’re the only other medic these people have. I’ll be fine with them but I can’t say the same for these people if you don’t stay with them.”

  
I grumbled a bit before nodding, straightening up, “Cara will join you guys. If anything happens send up a smoke signal and I’ll come running.”  
With that Cara walked over to them and I walked back to our campsite to set up our tent. On the group’s way past me, Cara put a soothing hand on my shoulder before walking away. I noticed the Blake girl had joined their group. That should be fun. I glanced over to our fake guard and saw him watching the group leave with a concerned look clouding his face. He must’ve felt me looking because he turned and caught my eye, quickly wiping the emotion off his face. He glared at me slightly and turned to address the rest of the 100. I glanced towards where Cara had vanished into the tree line concerned before shaking off my feelings and setting my mind to the task at hand. Cara can handle herself.

Cara

I glanced back just once at Nova before disappearing into the tree line. I took a breath, secured my bag higher on my shoulder and then strutted into the forest alongside Clarke and Octavia. Finn was leading for now, seemingly in a trance because of his new surroundings. Monty and Jasper were trying their best to keep up with him, making the three of them just roughly out of ear shot. Octavia moved her head closer to Clarke’s, making sure to keep her eyes fixed in Finn’s direction.

  
“Before you get any ideas, Finn’s mine,” She declared, her ego filling the atmosphere.

  
“Before you get any ideas, I don’t care,” Clarke answered, annoyance in her words before she quickened her pace to join up with the boys.

  
I tilted my head to get a good look at Octavia, the girl clearly thought she had won that little exchange.

  
“Before you get any ideas, you probably should of claimed him weeks ago,” I replied smugly before moving around her to catch up with the others.

  
As we ventured deeper into the forest, I couldn’t help but move off on my own a bit to get a closer look at the trees and some flowers that had bloomed along some of the bushes. I came across something I’ve only seen in books before, a daisy, my favorite flower. We didn’t have much use for them on the Ark so I was never able to see one in person, until now. Before I got locked up I was planning on becoming a plant geneticist so I made sure to memorize all the plants of Earth to hopefully breed them back into existence one day.

  
I was knocked out of my trance by the sound of worry in Octavia’s voice, she was frantically brushing one of the flowers out of her hair.

  
“The flowers aren’t poisonous. They’re medicinal, calming actually,” Monty chimed in, soothing the situation. I remembered seeing the two of them before we were locked up, Monty’s parents were the ones in charge of growing and maintaining everything down at Farm station. I looked up as I watched him place a flower in his mouth before grabbing another and holding it out for me. I followed his lead as Clarke’s voice drowned out my thoughts.

  
“Hey, guys, would you try to keep up?” She asked, getting more annoyed with each syllable. Leave it to her to kill the entire mood of our journey, but I couldn’t really blame her for wanting to find supplies, everyone was going to start getting hungry soon.

  
“Maybe we’ve already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us. Sure is pretty though, come on.”

  
I spoke too soon, I could definitely blame her for being negative the entire time. That surely would solve all our problems. Thankfully Finn spoke up and it was enough to get us back on track.

  
“So I already know what Cara did, I got to know what you two did to get busted,” Finn said back towards Monty and Jasper.

  
“Sumac’s not the only herb in the garden, if you know what I mean,” Monty smirked smugly.

  
“Someone forgot to replace what we took,” Jasper added with an eye roll.

  
“Someone’s apologized, like, 1,000 times,” Monty said back, continuing their back and forth banter they were infamous for.

  
“Wait, what _did_ Cara do?” Octavia butted in.

  
“Oh you know, just ran the most successful underground casino the Ark’s ever seen,” I shrugged.

  
“I missed a casino?!” Octavia exclaimed.

  
“Just a small, very big one...I don’t like to brag,” I continued nonchalantly.

  
“What about you, Octavia? What’d they get you for?” Jasper inquired.

  
“Being born.” As soon as the words left her mouth you could feel the awkwardness fill the air, luckily for everyone she ran off to catch up to Clarke who was crouched down up ahead.

  
I caught up to Clarke and followed her lead by kneeling down beside her, my eyes finally catching what the smile on her face was for. We had finally found an animal, a deer, a sign that there was other life here on Earth besides us. I looked around, the 6 of us all had matching smiles across our faces...that was until the deer exposed the other side of it’s head or should I say heads. The deer, startled trotted away deeper into the forest. With the deer out of the way we continued forward. Letting myself get lost in the surroundings, I couldn’t stop looking at how green everything was, Earth was getting more beautiful by the second.

  
“The ark is dying.” The words came out of Clarke’s mouth, echoing through me. We all had the same reaction: disbelief.

  
“At the current population level, there’s roughly 3 months left of life support, maybe 4 now that we’re gone,” She continued.

  
“So that was the secret they locked you up to keep, why they kept you in solitary, floated your old man?” Finn questioned.

  
“My father was the engineer who discovered the flaw. He thought the people had a right to know. The council disagreed. My mother disagreed. They were afraid it would cause a panic. We were gonna to go public anyway, when Wells…”

  
“What, turned in your Dad?” Finn cut in.

  
“Anyway, the guard showed up before we could. That’s why today. That’s why it was worth the risk. Even if we all die, they bought themselves more time.”

  
“They’re going to kill more people, aren’t they?” Monty inquired, already seeming to know the answer.

  
“Good. After what they did to me, I say, float them all,” Octavia sniped back.

  
I shook my head before inching to the left of the group, trying to collect my thoughts. _How could they justify killing the innocent people up on the Ark? My mother being one of them...Nova’s mother being one of them. Nova. Shit. I was going to have to tell her._

  
“Oh, damn, I love Earth.”

  
I followed Jasper’s gaze, looking over at the water, though I quickly realized his eyes were on something else. Octavia was stripping down to her underwear. I glanced over at everyone, confusion written across my face only to notice they all had the same dazed expression, including Finn. I whacked him across his shoulder and glared at him, he looked back at me with feigned innocence while shrugging. I glared more intensely causing a smirk to appear on his face. Clarke suddenly took off toward Octavia, causing the rest of us to follow. _What kind of dumbass randomly jumps into water?_ I thought. _Has she really been deprived of Jaws?_

  
“Octavia! We can’t swim!” Monty exclaimed.

  
“I know, but we can stand,” Octavia responded coolly.

  
“I give you a 5 for performance and a 2 for execution.” I could feel eyes on me. “What? Her landing was sloppy. Did you see any form? No, because there wasn’t any.”

  
“Wait, there’s not supposed to be a river here,” Clarke said, taking a closer look into the river.

  
“Well there is, so take off your damn clothes,” Finn persuaded, the smirk still in tact.

  
“Excuse you? We’re doing what now?” I snapped at Finn, rolling my eyes.

  
I turned my gaze back to the water, noticing movement along the surface. _What the Hell?_ I took a step forward to get a better look just as Jasper started screaming.

  
“Octavia! Get out of the water! Get out of the water now!”

  
Before Octavia could react she was suddenly being pulled down into the water by some sort of _Eel? Snake? Wormslug? River cucumber thing? Yeah, River Cucumber perfect._

  
“Octavia!” Jasper yelled frantically.

  
Octavia screamed before being dragged completely under, everyone suddenly going dead silent and staring at the spot where she vanished. While they all just stood there I went up to a taller rock ledge nearby and looked out over the water. _Where oh where did the River Cucumber go? Where oh where is O?_ I thought to myself as I examined the river’s surface for any signs of life. Suddenly I saw movement and then Octavia was popping back out of the surface and screaming again. Everyone else seemed to finally be broken from their trance and joined me on the cliff.

  
“What the hell is that?!” Monty shouted from my left.

  
“I believe I’ve settled on River Cucumber,” I stated, smiling a bit.

  
“What?” Monty said back, confusion etched on his face.

  
Clarke stole his attention back away, asking for help. Together Monty, Finn, and Clarke shoved a giant boulder into the river. It made a big splash but did nothing to actually harm the Cucumber, it did however make it let go of Octavia.

  
“Can you get to the shore now?”Jasper called down to her, running towards her. Before she even really answered he jumped in and grabbed her, frantically trying to get to the shore.

  
“It’s coming back! It’s headed right for you guys!” Monty yelled out.

  
Jasper swam quicker to the shore. Just as it looked like it was going to reach them, they were able to get up onto a rock at the shoreline. I could feel everyone else breathing a sigh of relief as they all rushed down to meet the duo and bring them further ashore. I followed behind at a slightly less panicked pace, keeping my eye on the water as everyone else circled Octavia.

Nova

Finally I finished setting up our section of camp and started wandering around the rest of the campsite, listening to the gossip. As I walked by one group I overheard them saying that the fake guard was Octavia's older brother, Bellamy. Well, the protectiveness makes sense now. I heard some commotion and glanced over at it, taking note of how a few of the boys had seemingly ganged up on Wells. I shrugged and went back to exploring, not really caring too much about Wells’ safety. Survival of the fittest, right? I stopped next to some brunette girl who seemed to be sitting down doing nothing.

  
“Why don’t you go be useful and let the others know I’m gonna go collect some firewood. It’s going to be dark before we know it,” I said to her. She just stared up at me silently. I raised my eyebrows at her, “Well? Go. And tell others to start collecting wood too. We need enough to last us the night.”

  
She stared for a few more seconds before nodding and walking off to the nearest group of delinquents that were hanging out. I shook my head and went out into the woods. I didn’t dare wander too far alone but I did make almost a complete circle of our camp before picking up a few good looking fallen branches and bringing them to the center of camp. I saw others also bringing in some firewood so I decided that it wasn’t necessary for me to go back out and collect more. Besides, I was exhausted and I’ve definitely earned a nap. I walked into Cara and I’s tent and collapsed onto my makeshift bed and fell asleep fairly quickly.

What seemed to be a few hours later I opened my eyes to the sounds of chanting outside. _What the?_ I got up and left my tent, noting that it was very dark out. I followed the sound of the chanting until I came upon a bonfire that everyone had seemingly finished setting up after I went to bed. I saw something glinting in the fire and looked closer, realizing it was a bunch of our wristbands.

  
“Why are we removing our wristbands?” I asked the brunette girl from earlier.

  
“So the Ark thinks we’re dead.” she responded.

  
I nodded my head and looked over to where Bellamy and Wells were talking on the other side of the fire. Huh. This ought to be good. I made my way around to the other side to be closer to them.

  
“It looks like you’re trying to get us all killed,” I heard Wells state as I got in hearing range, “the communication system is dead. These wristbands are all we got. Take them off and the Ark will think we’re dying, that it’s not safe for them to follow.”

  
“That’s the point, Chancellor” Bellamy said pointedly. I stopped a little over an arm’s length away from them as Bellamy continued, “We can take care of ourselves! Can’t we?”

  
While everyone else screamed “Yeah,” I shook my head and yelled, “No!”

  
Bellamy turned and glared at me before turning his attention back to Wells as he started to address the crowd.

  
“You think this is a game? Those aren’t just our friends and our parents up there. They’re our farmers, our doctors, our engineers. I don’t care what he tells you, we won’t survive here on our own,” Wells paused and turned to face Bellamy directly again, “And besides, if it really is safe, how could you not want the rest of our people to come down?”  
“My people already are down. Those people locked my people up. Those people killed my mother for the crime of having a second child, you’re father did that.”

  
“My father didn’t write the laws.”

  
“No. He enforced them, but not anymore. Not here. Here, there are no laws.”

  
“Yeah because that won’t have repercussions or anything,” I mumbled to myself, rolling my eyes.

  
Bellamy ignored me and continued, “Here, we do whatever the hell we want, whenever the hell we want. Now, you don’t have to like it, Wells. You can even try to stop it or change it, kill me. You know why? Whatever the hell we want!”

  
Huh. Now that was a statement I could get behind, “Whatever the hell we want!” I cheered a few times with the group. I cut off when I heard something, thunder I believe, and then felt something. I looked up just as it started to rain down hard on us. I was drenched in second but it was totally worth it to be able to feel the rain beating against my skin.

  
“We need to collect this,” Wells said to Bellamy and I, the only two still paying attention to him.

  
“Whatever the hell you want,” Bellamy said to him matter-of-factly.

  
Wells stormed off as I turned to face Bellamy, “You know what I wish I could do?”

  
“I don’t care. Do whatever the hell you want.”

  
_Well then_, “Rude, much? I was just going to say get out of these wet clothes and get warm but whatever.” I huffed at him, “worst birthday ever honestly, you’re all rude” I said and stormed off, heading back to my tent. They could all go float themselves for all I care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First things first, thank you so much from both of us for reading our story! We hope you enjoyed it and will continue to read it! We should be posting the next chapter in about two weeks time, maybe less if the interest is there. So please if you will, remember to leave Kudos, Comments, or message us. We'd definitely love to hear from you all so don't be afraid to let us know what you think. Thanks again! Love you!


	2. The Rescue Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We do not own the show The 100, we just love it, please enjoy :)

Nova

I shot awake, my heart beating rapidly in my chest, the nightmare still flashing through my mind. I tried taking a few steadying breaths before finally shaking it off. I looked around my tent and it helped to ground me, I knew I wasn’t back in my cell and I had survived my birthday. _ I’m 18 and I’m alive_.

I pulled on my boots and made sure my knife was tucked into my right one securely before making my way out of the tent. I took a breath of fresh air and glanced around the camp, everyone was pretty much just laying around or still asleep. _ Good to know that no one is doing anything useful, _ I rolled my eyes. I heard a grunt nearby and looked over, spotting Wells struggling to drag a dead body out of the Dropship. I jogged over to him and tapped him on the back of his shoulder to get his attention. He whipped around and almost swung before he saw me and realized I wasn’t a threat.

“What?” He snapped.

I smiled calmly and pointed to the body, recognizing it as the one I ‘killed’ yesterday, “You need some help with that?”

He squinted his eyes suspiciously before nodding, “Sure.”

I stepped around him and grabbed the legs while he grabbed ahold of the shoulders again. I nodded and we both lifted and started carrying him outside the camp perimeter. As we walked I noticed another body lying on the ground nearby, _ must’ve already carried the other out _. Wells brought us to a stop alongside the first body and we set the one we were holding down. I noticed there was only one shovel, “So who’s shoveling?”

“I’ll dig if you strip the bodies, we shouldn’t bury them with anything we can reuse, we’ve already got limited resources.”

I nodded and kneeled down on the ground, “Why not? I used to help do this in Med Bay sometimes, so it wouldn't be the first time I’ve helped with a dead body.”

“Oh yeah, you used to shadow Abby, right?” Wells said as he began shoveling.

I set about stripping them down to just their undershirt and underwear and nodded, “Yeah, and I assisted Jackson too when Abby didn’t need me.”

“I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

“Nova, Nova Grey, you’d think you’d remember me with how much time you spent following Clarke around Med Bay like a love sick puppy.”

“Hey, I did not!”

I stopped and gave him a look before finishing with the first body, “Oh please, all I had to do was see you guys together once to know there was something there. The princess and the chancellor prince, the power couple of the Ark and all that. Why weren’t you guys ever actually together anyway? You should go for her now.”

“She hates me now, I don’t think she’d ever forgive me for what she thinks I did.”

“What does she think you did?”

Wells sighed, “I turned her father in, I’m the one who got him floated and her arrested.”

“You did that? _ You? _ I don’t believe that for a second. You might be a prat and a tattle tale but you wouldn’t do that to her.”

“She thinks I did, and I let her believe it.”

I finished with the second body and piled the clothes together off to the side, “So, who actually got her father killed?”

Wells paused on his hole digging and I noticed he was almost complete with the first one, “I shouldn’t tell you, it could cause too many problems when everyone else comes down.”

“Whatever, I don’t really care anyway. Move over,” I shoved him aside, grabbed the shovel, and began digging, “You’re too slow.”

I finished digging that hole and then the other quietly. The whole time I couldn’t help but wonder who turned in Mr. Griffin and for what, nobody was actually ever told what his crime was. _ And how was Clarke involved? Oh well, I’m sure I’ll figure it out sooner or later. _

“Alright, the graves are ready, let’s get them in,” I stated, setting the shovel aside.

Wells stood up and we quickly got them laid down in the graves. I picked up the shovel again and tossed it at Wells, “I dug them out, you bury them. I’ll find a few rocks to mark their graves.”

Wells nodded and got to work. I set off to the nearby treeline and found two good sized rocks and also a few random flowers. I carried it all back over to the gravesite and sat down watching as Wells finished. Then, I placed the rocks and flowers where their heads were facing. I patted Wells on the back and then picked up the pile of clothes and handed them to him, “Let’s get back to camp.”

We wandered back and as soon as we got closer we both could hear a bunch of kids yelling. Sure enough, a whole pack of 15 year olds went running past us, weaving in and out of the treeline. Then we were met with a couple making out near the entrance. 

“Oh to be young and in love!” I yelled jokingly and threw a handful of dirt in their direction. They both let out indignant squawks and sent me the middle finger before going right back like I was never here, “Get a room losers!”

On our way into camp the group of kids almost bowled us over so I pushed the closest one to me down to the ground and swore at the rest of them. _ Idiots _ . Right next to the Dropship there was a group of kids beating on drums and more kids running around. _ Well, glad someone’s having fun. _

A voice suddenly spoke up from behind us, cutting off my thoughts, “Hey, where’d you get the clothes?”

Wells and I turned and saw Atom standing there.

“We buried the two kids who died during the landing,” Wells informed him.

“Smart. You know, I’ll take it from here. There’s always a market for-” Atom started reaching for the clothes in Wells’ arms.

“We share based on need!” Wells snapped back, pushing him away.

“And if anyone was gonna use the clothing market to an advantage, it would be me, not you,” I added slyly, stepping in between the two to block Atom’s grabby hands.

“You still don’t get it, do you, Chancellor?” A sudden gruff voice cut in. I snapped my eyes up and took note of Bellamy standing there, shirtless. _ Damn _, I looked him over, my eyes zeroing in on the gun tucked against his very defined abs. Suddenly a girl came out from behind him and kissed him before he continued on talking, “This is home now, your father’s rules no longer apply.”

At the end of his sentence he tried reaching around me to grab all the clothes, but he only managed to grab a jacket off the top before I stepped in the way again. Atom quickly reached out and grabbed onto Wells and I to block us from taking it back. I grabbed the hand that was on me and shoved it away hard.

“Hey, hey, Atom hold up. You want it back?” Bellamy asked mockingly, “Take it.”

“Oh I don’t think you want me to do that,” I warned, my eyes going dark.

Wells threw down the rest of the clothes stupidly and turned back to Bellamy as a bunch of kids ran to the pile and tore it apart, “Is this what you want? Chaos?”

Bellamy smirked while putting his shirt back on, “What’s wrong with a little chaos?”

I was just about to demonstrate exactly what was wrong with chaos when a girl’s scream echoed across the camp. I quickly ran over to it, everyone else following closely behind. When I approached the clearing where the scream came from I saw a girl being held over a fire by that same guy that was terrorizing Wells yesterday.

“Bellamy!” He called out, noticing the new arrivals, “Check it out, we want the Ark to think that the ground is killing us right? Figure it’ll look better if we suffer a little bit first.”

Wells, in a burst of violence I didn’t know he had in him, pushed him and the girl away from the fire, “Let her go!”

Bellamy and I approached them and Wells looked up to him, “You can stop this.”

“Stop this?” Bellamy scoffed, “I’m just getting started.”

Suddenly the other guy came out of nowhere and punched Wells so hard in the face I wouldn’t be surprised if he broke something.

“FINALLY!” I yelled while all the other kids started chanting, “Fight!” repeatedly.

Wells and the guy went at it, grabbing and hitting each other.

“You call that a fight! My grandma could hit harder than that!” I yelled, taunting them both.

The guy clearly didn’t like that and tackled Wells to the ground hard, hitting him repeatedly. Wells managed to flip them over so he was on top and punched him relentlessly in his face until it looked like the guy wasn’t going to get back up. Wells got off of him and turned wildly to Bellamy, “Don’t you see you can’t control this?”

“Um Wells,” I started cautiously, motioning behind him to where the other guy, _ I really have to figure out his name _, was pulling out a knife and approaching him.

“You’re dead,” he said menacingly.

“Wait.” Bellamy commanded stepping in between them.

“Ooh are we taking bets?!” I shouted excitedly, “I’ve totally got two days worth of rations on the skinny one with the knife!”

All around me the kids were shouting out bets and names. I smirked up at them and they all got more excited. _ I can see they missed our gambling ring, gonna have to mention that to Cara and get it up and running again ASAP. _ Bellamy threw a knife on the ground, “Fair fight,” he said and walked back out of the way. I stood and watched as Wells did nothing but look at the knife, “Pick it up loser!” I snapped, shoving him lightly towards it.

He glanced back at me hesitantly before bending down and picking it up. _ Finally. _ The other guy sent a few fainted jabs towards him to rile him up until Wells eventually swung back at him way to wide and almost fell over. The other kid took advantage of it and sliced his upper arm. The guy then approached him again, “This is for my father!” he yelled as he attacked Wells. Wells actually fought back this time and surprisingly got him in a choke hold, knife pressed against his neck.

“Damn Wells! Who knew you had it in you?” I teased.

“WELLS!” a voice yelled out from the treeline. I snapped my head over and saw first Clarke, and then the rest of the scouting mission following her. Clarke continued to talk, “Let him go!”

“Yeah Wells, I bet you’d lose, not win,” I said, walking closer to Cara as she walked closer to me. I kept my eyes on the fight until finally Wells let him go. The guy tried to get back up and attack again but Bellamy held him back and snapped at him. I turned to face Cara completely and looked her up and down quickly to make sure she wasn’t harmed, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, I’m fine,” Cara said back dismissively, “How about you? And what was that about a bet?”

“Those idiots are fighting, I bet Wells would lose. All good here, I set up camp and got us settled in. Also dealt with way too many teenage hormones over the past 24 hours, but otherwise I’m good.”

I could hear them talking in the background but I wasn’t really paying attention until I heard the word attacked, “WHAT?! You were attacked?! What the Hell, Cara!”

Cara rolled her eyes, “Like I said I’m fine.”

“Why didn’t you send up the smoke signal?!”

“With what?!”

“SMOKE!”

“Listen, Octavia needs help, she was hurt, why don’t you go do that instead of freaking out?”

I huffed, “Fine! But you need to work on your smoke signals for next time.”

I went to take a few steps to get to where Octavia was standing, leaning against her brother, but Finn’s voice stopped me in my tracks.

“It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn’t the last grounder.”

_ There are other people down here?! _

“It’s true. Everything we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is that means we can survive. Radiation won’t kill us,” Clarke chimed in. 

Finn cut back in, “Yeah, the bad news is the grounders will.”

“Where’s the kid with the goggles?” Wells questioned suddenly, concern in his tone.

“Jasper was hit. They took him,” Clarke answered solemnly. 

I ignored everyone else for a moment and turned to look at Cara, “Hit by what?”

“Oh you know, a spear,” Cara answered just a little bit _ too _casually. I could tell she was slightly worried, but we were tough and neither of us were going to let this whole grounder revelation get to us. I have to believe we can handle whatever gets in our way, just as we always have.

I reached out and brushed a hand over her shoulder quickly, about to speak up when I heard something about the Ark dying out of Clarke’s mouth. My eyes widened, “Wait, what’s happening to the Ark?”

“I’ll give you the quick version,” Cara answered back, “We’re the test dummies to see if we can all survive down here,” She motioned downwards with her left pointer finger, “Because everyone’s slowly losing oxygen up there,” She continued, pointing upwards with her right pointer finger.

“But our moms are up there!”

Clarke suddenly yelled, catching my attention again, “If you take off your wristbands, you’re not just killing them. You’re killing us.” 

Bellamy quickly interjected,“We’re stronger than you think. Don’t listen to her! She’s one of the privileged. If they come down, she’ll have it good. How many of you can say the same?”

I slowly began to raise my hand when I felt Cara smack it back down. “Not the time,” she whisper-chastised. 

“What?! He asked.”

“It was a rhetorical question,” Cara rolled her eyes at me before we paid attention to Bellamy again. 

“We are not prisoners anymore! They say they’ll forgive your crimes, I say you’re not criminals! You’re fighters, survivors! The grounders should worry about us!”

I rolled my eyes and finally walked over to Octavia, taking her away from the group a little and sitting her down on a boulder. Bellamy glared at me before realizing what I was doing and turned back to everyone else.

“Let me see,” I said to Octavia in my soft and soothing doctor voice.

Octavia huffed and shimmied her pants down carefully, exposing her right thigh to me. I looked over the curious wound carefully before turning to Cara and waving her over, “What happened?”

“The river cucumber wanted to play with her.”

I blinked up at her, “The...the what now?”

“There was a river that wasn’t supposed to be a river and the cucumber made it his home. Octavia went into the river and well, you know the rest.” 

“What were you thinking?” I heard from behind us as Bellamy appeared with a bag in hand. He held it out to me and I grabbed for it, quickly setting to work. In the bag was some cloth to wrap the wound, extra cloth that I could use to clean it, and some water. _ Good enough _. I quickly started washing out Octavia’s wound while the siblings bickered and my sibling hovered. When I deemed it clean I dried the wound as best I could, placed an extra cloth onto it, and wrapped the larger cloth around her leg. I tied it securely enough to stay on but not so tight it would cut off circulation. 

“Alright, Octavia, you’re all set for now. Keep it clean and dry until tomorrow when I re-bandage it. If you feel any unusual pain or your leg starts feeling hot and looks red come get me ASAP, but otherwise I’ll take care of it tomorrow.”

“Thanks Doc,” she said a little teasingly, but still sounding grateful. 

“You’re welcome, no more diving into strange rivers, okay?”

“I’ll try not to.”

“You could have been killed!” Bellamy snapped at her, brotherly concern clearly coming through in his tone.

“She would of been if Jasper didn’t jump in to pull her out.” Clarke chimed in, appearing out of seemingly nowhere. 

“Are you guys leaving? I’m coming too,” Octavia said, jumping up. 

Bellamy was quick to put his foot down, “No, no. No way. Not again.”

“This time I am coming,” I stated, leaving no room for argument. 

Clarke shrugged and turned to Bellamy, “I’m here for you. I hear you have a gun.”

Bellamy suggestively lifted his shirt up to reveal both the gun and his delicious abs, but honestly I was so distracted by the gun I barely paid any attention to the muscles. _ God I need to get my hands on that thing _. 

“Good. You can all follow me,” Clarke demanded, starting to walk off.

He grabbed her arm, “And why would I do that?” 

“Because you want them to follow you, and right now they’re thinking only one of us is scared.”

_ Ooooh, nice one Clarke! _

Cara

“Come on, come with me to get my pack,” Nova said, quickly leading us to our tent so we could meet up with the others. As we passed by the Dropship, I noticed some words scratched into the paneling. 

“Hey Nova, who spelled die wrong?” I asked, confusion filling my voice. 

“Umm, I don’t know. His name was Miller or something.” 

“Miller is that one,” I said, pointing over in his direction

Nova turned and looked him over, “No, no, not him,” She said pausing for a moment before beginning to scan the camp for whoever it actually was. “This one!” She said suddenly, reaching out and grabbing on to the jacket of the guy Bellamy decided was coming along with us. 

“This one! What’s your name again?”

“What’s it to you?” The boy responded coldly.

“It’s like Dunphy or Dummy… something that ends in a Y” Nova continued.

“Go float yourself.” 

“Yup, Dummy’s the one,” She smirked, letting go of his jacket. He shook his head at her before joining up with Bellamy as we all headed into the forest. Nova and I let the other two groups go ahead, keeping a safe distance between us. It felt good to be sort of going on a walk with just the two of us, despite the circumstances. 

“How was the rest of your birthday by the way? Any better than sitting in a cell?” I asked, looking over at my sister.

“It would of been, if I wasn’t surrounded by douchebags trying to fight each other every two seconds.”

“There was more than one?”

“You missed about three more, all containing Wells.”

“That guy’s really unpopular, isn’t he?”

“You don’t even know the half of it. Plus that Bellamy guy and his motley crew kept being rude to me.”

“Bellamy? That Bellamy? The one right in front of us, Bellamy?”

“Um, no?”

“Do you want me to kill him? I can kill him.”

“Chill Cara, we have Jasper to focus on.”

“Nope, we can kill him first.” I marched forward, approaching him quickly. Just as I was about to make a grab for him I was tackled to the ground by Nova. I tried struggling out of Nova’s grasp but she was stronger than me. I glared up at Bellamy as he turned to face the commotion we were making.

“Can I help you?” Bellamy questioned, glaring back.

“No, but I can help you into an early grave,” I snapped while glancing down, noticing he had his gun in his hand.

“Knock it off!” Clarke cut in, stepping up to us and holding out her hand to help us up.

Nova ignored it and stood up herself before pulling me back to my feet as well.

“We don’t have time for this!” Clarke sniped as she stormed back up to lead the group.

“What’s the rush? You don’t survive a spear through the heart.” Bellamy asked Clarke, waving the gun around a bit.

“Put the gun away Bellamy.” Wells ordered, stepping in front of him

‘Dummy’ jumped in front of Bellamy and started pushing Wells away, “Well, why don’t you do something about it, huh?” 

Clarke rolled her eyes, “Listen, Jasper screamed when they moved him. If the spear struck his heart, he’d of died instantly. It doesn’t mean we have time to waste.” 

“As soon as you take this wristband off, we can go.” Bellamy bargained, grabbing Clarke’s wrist

“The only way the Ark is going to think I’m dead, is if I’m dead. Got it?”

“Brave princess…”

“Hey, why don’t you find your own nickname?” a familiar voice cut in, Finn’s voice, “You call this a rescue party? Got to split up to cover more ground. Clarke, come with me.” 

Finn walked ahead of the group, Clarke following behind him like a lost puppy.

I huffed and turned to face Nova, only to notice that she grouped up with Wells and Bellamy, which meant I was left with the guy she had previously insulted. I looked around and noticed he was already walking away. I quickly caught up with him so that we were walking side-by-side.

“I assume your name isn’t actually Dummy, what is it?” I asked, as we slowly worked our way deeper into the forest. 

“It’s Murphy. John Murphy.”

“Crawford, Cara Crawford, nice to know your actual name,” I teased before giving him a soft smile, seemingly taking him off guard. It was clear to me that no one had actually tried being nice to this guy. “How’d you end up in the Sky Box anyway?” 

“I was angry, my mother died and my father was floated. I set fire to the guard’s quarters to get even.”

A sudden rustling among the bushes startled me from our conversation. Looking over in the direction of the noise I was surprised to meet eyes with an animal I loved reading about back on The Ark. A bunny. I was trying to contain my excitement while thinking back to the deer with two faces. _ Is this animal going to be radiation affected too? _

“I wouldn’t,” Murphy commented, seemingly knowing what I was thinking. 

“Just let me look,” I told him, slightly rolling my eyes. I took a few small steps closer in the bunny’s direction, watching the ground so I could be sure not to step on anything to startle it. As I got closer I couldn’t help but notice the bunny wasn’t ordinary, it was to be expected, but it didn’t look like the deer from earlier either. It was slightly different, in a better way, instead of a deformed head this bunny was faced with having an extra ear. 

“Can I ask you something?” Murphy startled me a little with his words. I looked back over to see the bunny, but it had taken off into the woods.

“Yeah, go for it,” I replied, putting my attention back on him now that the bunny was gone.

“Why do you spend so much time with _ her _?” I knew the disgust in his voice was from the lovely nickname Nova decided to give him earlier. 

“She’s always been there for me, I mean, she_ is _ my sister after all.”

“Wait, but neither of you were arrested for being born like Octavia?”

“Technically it wasn’t a crime...our father just liked to entertain multiple women at a time,” I shrugged. Many people weren’t aware that Nova and I were actual blood, our father made sure of that. The best loophole on The Ark was kept under wraps for 17 years and here I was telling a random guy who just happened to be sent down to the ground with me. 

“You’re probably the first person outside my family to know that,” I continued with a laugh, “Do what you’d like with that information.” 

He looked at me and smiled a bit before shrugging his shoulders. 

Soon we reached a clearing and met up with the others. 

“Hey, how do we know this is the right way?” Murphy questioned.

“We don’t. Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker.” Bellamy said, annoyance in his voice.

“It’s called ‘cutting sign’, fourth year Earth Skills. He’s good.” Wells explained.

“You want to keep it down or should I paint a target on your backs?” Finn butted in and then paused to take a look at a broken branch. He examined it for a second and then bent down to look at something on the ground. I leaned over and noticed that the rocks were covered in blood.

“See? You’re invisible” Bellamy whispered over at Wells.

_ Huh, wonder what that means? I’ll have to ask Nova later. _

Suddenly a loud moan sounded throughout the clearing.

“What the hell was that?” Murphy questioned.

“Sounds like Jasper is having a good time,” I heard Nova mumble under her breath.

“The spear,” I reminded her with an eye roll.

“Ohh yeah.”

“Now would be a good time to take out that gun,” Clarke said back to Bellamy, looking towards the direction the noise came from.

Finn started walking forward and we all followed close behind, the moaning getting louder as we got closer. Suddenly we were in another clearing, this one filled with giant pointy sticks and a big leafless tree of which Jasper was tied to. His arms were bound above his head, showing off his chest where the spear wound resided.

“Jasper,” Clarke said, terrified, “Oh my god! Jasper!”

“Clarke be careful!” Finn yelled out as Clarke went charging forward.

We all quickly followed her. Suddenly Clarke yelled out as the ground fell out from under her. Nova threw her arm out in front of me to stop me from walking as Bellamy reached down and grabbed Clarke’s wrist at the last second.

“CLARKE! Get her up!” I could hear Finn yelling as Bellamy and Clarke stared at each other.

As Finn continued to yell Nova leaned closer to me, “Is it just me or am I sensing sexual tension?”

Murphy and the other guys all rushed forward to grab a hold of Bellamy and Clarke to pull her back up to safety.

“You okay?” Finn said the second she was safely back on her feet.

“Yeah,” Clarke breathed out, looking at Bellamy.

“Tension,” Nova sing-songed under her breath.

I laughed and pushed her arm down so I could step forward. Nova smiled at me and then began moving around the death pit to get to the tree.

“We need to get him down,” Clarke commanded.

“I’ll climb up there and cut the vines,” Finn said.

“Nova is already twelve steps ahead of you,” I butted in, pointing towards where Nova was currently climbing up the tree.

Finn huffed an annoyed breath and started walking towards the tree. Wells tried following him but Finn brushed him off and told him to stay put, while Murphy stepped forward to stand at the base of the tree to help.

“There’s a poultice on his wound,” Clarke said, loud enough for everyone to hear

“He’s definitely alive and hurting, but the poultice looks like its helping keep infection away,” Nova called back down to her while brushing some hair out of Jasper’s face.

“Medicine? Why would they save his life just to string him up as live bait.” Wells thought aloud.

“Maybe what they’re trying to catch likes its dinner to be breathing,” Bellamy offered up.

“Maybe what they’re trying to catch is us,” Finn proposed.

Finn and Nova were still trying to cut all the vines when suddenly a loud growl sounded from nearby.

“What the hell was that?” Murphy said from his space near the tree.

“Grounders?” Bellamy questioned, looking around.

“People don’t growl like that,” I said to him.

We heard footsteps and looked over to an opening in the clearing to see a big cat looking animal. My eyes widened and I slowly worked my way closer to the tree to get my back up against something. Murphy briefly glanced over at me before looking back towards the cat. Suddenly it snarled and starting running straight towards us all.

“Bellamy! Gun!” Clarke yelled out in a panic.

I could see Bellamy reaching to grab something but he didn’t pull anything out. _ Crap, did the idiot lose the gun? _

Suddenly a gunshot sounded off from above me. I glanced up and saw Nova with the gun in her hand.

“When did you get that?” I questioned, looking back where the cat was still approaching.

A second shot went off as the beast leapt up to pounce on Bellamy. The cat whined and flopped to the ground, wounded and hopefully dying. Bellamy looked down to the animal and then up to Nova with what seemed like a mixture of anger and gratefulness.

“Seriously, when did you get that?” I repeated looking back over at Nova.

“You know, when everyone was distracted a few minutes ago.” Nova responded, shrugging her shoulders.

“How did you even know that I had it?” Wells said, dumbfounded.

“You had it? When did _ you _ get it?” Bellamy interrogated.

“I pay attention.” Nova said nonchalantly. “Now everyone come here and help me get Jasper down. I’m going to cut this last vine, Finn and Wells get ready to catch him.” 

The vine snapped and Jasper fell into their arms. I walked over to the cat while surveying the environment. As I stepped closer, I nudged it’s chest with the side of my boot taking notice of Bellamy standing on the opposite side of its body. He gave me a look filled with confusion. 

“Someone had to make sure it was dead.” I said before Clarke joined us, pulling a tarp out of her bag and spreading it out on the grass. 

“Here, so you can transport the animal.”

Bellamy nodded and motioned for Murphy to come over and help him. They rolled the cat up in the tarp and lifted it into their arms. 

“Alright, you two have Jasper, you two have dinner, I have the gun. Let’s go.” Nova said, pointedly tucking the gun away into the side of her waistband. 

I turned to look at Bellamy, “You know you’re not getting that back, right?” 

“We’ll see about that.” He challenged.

I started to head toward the clearing that led back into the forest. “This way, come on, since Finn is occupied I’ll lead us back.”

“Do you even know the way back?” Clarke questioned.

“Do you really think I’d offer if I didn’t?”

By the time we returned to camp the sun had gone down. A boy spotted us and yelled out, “They’re back!”

We headed over to the Dropship where we were met with a concerned Monty. “Is he--?”

“He’s alive.” Clarke said cutting him off. 

“I made sure of it.” Nova said, joining in.

“I need boiled water and strips of cloth for bandages.”

“No, I need that,” Nova cut in, stepping in front of Clarke and leading the way into the Dropship. _ Yeah, I don’t think this is going to end well. _ Bellamy and Murphy placed the cat down next to me then uncovered it for the entire camp to see. 

“Who’s hungry?” Bellamy called out causing an uproar of excitement. He looked over to the Dropship and I followed his gaze only to see Clarke staring back at him intensely before joining Nova inside. Murphy and a few of the other kids brought the cat to the fire and began getting it ready to be eaten. By the time it was ready I caught sight of Murphy ordering everyone into a line. I watched closely as they started popping off people’s bracelets in exchange for a piece of meat. Finn casually cut in front of the line and reached out to grab a piece.

“Whoa whoa,” Murphy said, stopping him, “Wait, wait, wait.”I stepped closer to listen in on them as Murphy continued, “What, you think you play by different rules?”

“I thought there were no rules,” Finn sassed with a blank face.

They started staring each other down and I walked closer, grabbing two pieces of meat of my own. Murphy glared at me as Finn walked away, “What do you think you’re doing.”

I winked at him, “Please, try to take it from me, it’ll be fun.”

Murphy stared at me like he was debating whether to do it, but eventually shook his head.

I smirked before walking off towards the Dropship. Once inside, it didn’t take long to find Jasper and Nova on the second floor. Nova was holding his hand and brushing his hair back soothingly. _ Huh, who knew Jasper almost dying would bring out her soft side. _

“How’s our patient?” I asked, sitting next to her and holding out her portion of meat.

Nova smiled and took it with one hand while keeping ahold of Jasper’s with the other, “Thanks sis. He’ll be okay, I hope, as long as we keep any infection away and maybe figure out what was in that poultice the Grounders had on him.”

“If anyone can figure it out, it’s you.” I said picking some of the meat off the stick. 

Nova seemed to be playing with her food, just picking at it and not really eating any of it.

I narrowed my eyes at her, “What’s going on?”

“Nothing!” She said back quickly, shoving a big piece of meat in her mouth.

“Now I’m even more suspicious, _ what’s wrong _?”

Nova chewed slowly before finally swallowing and glancing up at me, “Well, um, I’m not sure how to say this…”

“Well you could start with using your mouth.”

“Alright Sassy, fine. Just remember you asked. So I was here with Clarke, and Finn came in and he um…He gave her something?”

“What something?”

Nova bit her lip and looked down at Jasper while talking, “He sort of gave her a two headed metal deer trinket.”

“Cute.”

“Are you okay?”

“How many bullets do you have left again?”

“For you? None. For me, three.”

“Why won’t you let me have _ one _?”

“Because it’s my toy and you can’t have it,” Nova teased back and stuck her tongue out childishly. We heard footsteps coming up the ladder before I could say anything back, it was Monty.

“How is he?” Monty asked, coming over to sit on Jasper’s other side.

Nova smiled reassuringly, “He’s okay for now, we just have to keep an eye on him. Maybe figure out what’s in that poultice to make a new one.”

I took a closer look and saw that his bracelet was still intact on his wrist. I pulled off a few pieces of meat from my stick and handed the rest over to him. Monty smiled gratefully and took it.

“Why couldn’t Monty get his own? Was there not enough?” Nova questioned.

“The assholes downstairs decided to make it so you had to give up your bracelet to get some.” I explained swiftly, rolling my eyes. 

“Who died and made them boss? I’m the one who killed the damn thing, if anything _ I _ should be in charge of who gets it.”

“They seem to have forgotten that. That’s why I ignored Murphy and just took some.”

“Ignored who?”

“Dummy.”

“You should of said that in the first place.”

“It doesn’t work when you’re the only one who refers to him as that.” I laughed at her before going back to my dinner. We hadn’t gone without food for that long, but this definitely sat better than the crap they used to feed us back on The Ark. I began to zone out while staring at the wolf ring that sat upon my left middle finger. Nova’s words were finally starting to sink in as I looked, remembering that Finn had made it for me back when we were up in The Sky Box.

“I’m sleeping with Jasper,” Nova announced as she finished her last bite of food, pulling me back into reality. 

“While he’s unconscious?” I teased questioningly. 

Monty started laughing, soon followed by Nova and I.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We hope you enjoyed Chapter 2 of The New Age! Some of our favorite funny moments happened in this chapter. Thank you for reading! You guys are awesome! Feedback is always welcomed and encouraged. Have a good week.  
Until next time, this is Blondie and Red signing off ♡


	3. Healing Hands and Killer Fog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We do not own the show The 100, we just love it, please enjoy :)

Nova

Jasper yelled out as Clarke prodded at his wounds.

“Stop it!” I snapped at her, shoving her hands away from him, “The more you play with it, the more likely infection will set in.”

“I know what I’m doing, Nova,” Clarke snapped back, reaching out to touch him again.

He promptly yelled out again and the delinquents sleeping downstairs started to yell.

“Now will you leave him be?” I scolded, pushing her hands away again and then reaching out to run a hand through Jasper’s hair soothingly, “Hush, you’re okay, I’ve got you.”

“Can he just die already!” Someone from downstairs shouted.

I stood and reached down to grab my knife but Cara reached out from her seat on the floor and took a hold of my hand to stop me, “It’s not worth it, sit back down and we’ll deal with the idiots in the morning.”

I looked over at her and squeezed her hand, subtly seeking comfort. Cara smiled and squeezed back before pulling me back down to sit between her and Jasper. I frowned down at him and then looked up to Clarke, “Why don’t you go get some water.”

Clarke shot me a dirty look, “Fine, I’ll go get some clean water, keep an eye on him.”

“I will, because he’s my patient. Bye now.”

Clarke shot me another look and then climbed down the ladder. _ Maybe I was being a jerk, but I just feel protective of Jasper, why do I feel like that? _As soon as she was gone Monty came over and took Clarke’s vacant spot next to Jasper and began soothing him. I yawned and rubbed at my eyes before shaking my head and staring at Jasper. I’d barely gotten any sleep over the past 48 hours since we’d gotten back to camp with him, focusing all my energy on making sure he stays alive. I must’ve zoned out for a while because I was suddenly being nudged on my shoulder. I yelped and almost fell over from the shock of it, but caught myself and turned to face Cara, “What?”

“Come here, lay down,” She said, motioning to the spot next to her.

“No. If I lay down I’ll fall asleep.”

“Yeah, Nova, that’s sort of the point. C’mon, Jasper will be okay if you rest for a few hours.”

“What if something happens though? I don’t want Clarke messing him up.”

“Monty and I will keep an eye on him, just sleep. I’m practically begging you. You haven’t slept properly since we got back.”

I glanced over at Jasper, “You’ll wake me?”

“I promise, now lay down.”

I nodded and listened to her command, laying down next to her and pillowing my head in my arms, “Don’t let Clarke touch him too much.”

“Just sleep,” Cara said back, patting my head twice before crossing her arms and relaxing.

I drifted off to sleep rather quickly after that to the sounds of Monty still shushing Jasper.

I woke up to the sound of Jasper yelling at some point and blindly reached out for him, slowly opening my eyes. Somebody else grabbed my hand before I reached him and pushed it back towards me.

“Hey, go back to sleep. He’s fine,” Cara’s voice sounded in my ear.

“But,” I mumbled and tried reaching for him with my other hand.

“Stop, don’t touch him. Just sleep or I swear I’ll knock you out. One way or the other you’re getting more rest.”

I nodded and admitted defeat, closing my eyes and settling back down.

The next time I awoke I could see some daylight coming in through the windows. I sat up and stretched before looking over at Jasper. I could see Monty and Cara whispering to each other over him.

“Hey,” I said softly, scooting closer to them and reaching out to lay a hand on Jasper’s upper arm.

“Hey Sleepy-Head, welcome to the land of the living,” Cara said, smiling at me.

“How long was I out?”

“A while, but Jasper is okay,” Monty responded.

I looked over the wound briefly and then pressed the back of my hand to both his head and around his wound, checking for fever and heat.

“What are you doing?” Monty asked curiously.

“Checking to see if he’s hot,” I answered back, distracted.

“Well I hope you think he’s hot if you’re sleeping with him,” Cara joked, laughing.

I rolled my eyes, “I’m never going to live that down am I?”

“Just wait until Jasper wakes up and I tell him about all the innuendos you made while he was unconscious.”

“He’s really going to be sad he was asleep all the times you’ve hit on him,” Monty added, smiling mischievously.

“I’m not hitting on him, I just can’t seem to help myself.”

Cara laughed, “Oh really? You can’t seem to help yourself around him? There you go flirting with an unconscious guy again.”

“Well, the conscious ones don’t seem to like me so I figured hey, why not try the unconscious ones?” I sarcastically said, passing my fingers briefly through Jasper’s hair again before standing and stretching some more. I felt a crack in my lower back and reached down to rub at it a little bit.

“Why don’t you go outside for a bit before you end up ‘accidentally’ proposing to poor unconscious Jasper?,” Cara suggested.

“Oh ha ha, very funny,” I said with an eye roll, “But I’m fine here, I need to be close to him.”

I could tell Cara was holding back another comment by the twinkle in her eye, “I’m going to disregard you said that because you’re my sister and I love you, but seriously, go outside. Go get some fresh food and fresh water. I’ll come get you the second anything happens.”

I hesitated a bit more before nodding and running my fingers through my own hair to un-knot it, “Alright, but I won’t go far.”

With that, I made my way down the ladder and out of the Dropship. I spotted Bellamy and Murphy standing off to the side with knives in their hands. _ Huh _. I decided to walk closer. As soon as I got within 5 feet of them Jasper let out another load moan and Murphy threw his knife at the tree. I watched as the knife hit it but didn’t stick, falling towards the ground.

“It’s that damn kid, always messing with my head,” Murphy said, trying to make up excuses.

“You missed,” I snarked, picking up the blade before he could.

“Go float yourself,” he snapped back, reaching for the blade. I danced out of his way and went to go stand on Bellamy’s other side. I twirled the knife in my hand, testing its weight and then I threw the knife just as Jasper moaned again. My knife flew true through the air and stuck into the tree at the same spot Murphy tried to get it into a few minutes earlier, “Huh, guess he’s not getting into my head. Looks like it’s only you, Dummy.”

“He’s not gonna last much longer, better think of a new excuse,” Bellamy said to him before throwing his hatchet into the tree. It hit and stuck right next to where I had stuck the knife, “That’s how it’s done.” 

“We searched a half mile, all directions,” Atom said, walking towards us, “No sign of Trina or Pascal.”

“We have missing delinquents?” I questioned.

“Where have you been? They’ve been missing for two days,” Bellamy answered. 

“I’ve been with Jasper for the past two days making sure he doesn’t die,” I reminded him, “and no one has really bothered to come see us except for my sister, Monty, and that wanna-be patient-thief Clarke.”

Murphy cut back into the conversation and began speaking with Atom, “Visit your special tree while you were out there?”

“Atom took his punishment. Let it go,” Bellamy commanded. 

“Punishment? For what? How much have I missed?” I asked. 

“Atom decided it was a good idea to make out with Bellamy’s sister,” Murphy said, filling me in. 

“Oh, well at least she didn’t try making out with Finn.”

“Enough,” Bellamy commanded again before motioning for Atom to keep talking. 

“Could be Grounders,” Atom suggested with a shrug. 

“Yeah, or they could be in pound town,” Murphy snarked, “Lot of that going around recently.”

“I wish there was,” I mumbled, joking.

Bellamy, who seemed to be the only one who heard me, rolled his eyes and walked to the tree. He took out his hatchet and I realized Murphy must’ve grabbed his knife already. 

“Look, Bellamy, people are scared,” Atom informed him, “and that dying kid, he’s not helping the morale around here.”

“Shut up before I make you shut up,” I hissed at him, taking a step towards him. He took a step back and looked over to Bellamy.

“Morale will go up when I find them more food,” Bellamy said confidently. 

“And what do we say when they ask about Trina and Pascal?” A random boy asked.

“Now? Nothing. It’s possible they’re just lost. We’ll keep an eye out for them when we go hunting later.”

“Let’s go kill something,” Murphy said. 

“Hunting? You didn’t even kill the first one, how are you going to do that without me?” I stated.

“You’re not going. I need you to stay here,” Bellamy said to Murphy, ignoring me, “If the Grounders are circling we can’t leave this place unprotected.”

“Fine.” Murphy said petulantly, “But somebody better tell goggle boy to keep it shut.”

“How about I stab you with a spear and see how quiet you stay?” I offered, grinning.

He glared and turned back to the tree, throwing his knife at it again and, surprise surprise, missing again. I was about to speak up when I heard my name being called. Murphy and I both looked up and saw Cara heading our way. 

“Nova, Clarke is touching Jasper.”

“WHAT?!”

“Yeah I think she’s gonna cut into him or something?”

“That thief!” I yelled out and ran back to the Dropship and up to Jasper. I saw Clarke hovering over a screaming Jasper, talking about how her mother would know what to do. 

“Back away, Griffin. I know more than you.”

Clarke stood her ground, not even moving an inch out of my way, “It’s infected. He’s probably going to go septic if we don’t do anything.”

“Well he didn’t have an infection a little bit ago so it set in quick. Now move or I’ll move you.”

She glared and scooted to the side. I dropped down next to her and began examining his wound, “We’re probably going to need to cut this off. Cauterizing it may have stopped the blood flow but it also stops it from healing properly. It makes it so the wound can’t heal from the inside out like it’s supposed to.”

“We can’t just cut into him,” Clarke said, frowning. 

“How’s he doing?” Wells’ voice said as he made his way over to us. 

“How’s it look like he’s doing, Wells?” Clarke snapped at him, glaring. 

“Hey, I’m just trying to help,” Wells said softly back. 

“Alright you wanna help? Hold him down,” Clarke said after a moment. 

“Stop. What are you going to do?!” I yelled, protectively curling over Jasper. 

“You said it yourself, we need to cut the infection away,” she said back, shoving her knife into the fire and getting ashes all over it. 

“I’m not gonna like this, am I?” Monty questioned. 

“Stop Clarke. You’re getting ash all over your knife. Plus yours looks dull compared to mine,” I knocked her knife away and took out mine, holding it over the fire so it wasn’t touching anything and letting it heat up enough to sterilize it the best I could.

“Put something in his mouth,” I instructed, looking at Wells, “and then you and Finn hold down his shoulders, and Clarke hold his feet.”

“No, let me do the cutting,” Clarke said, “I’ve seen my mom do something similar before.”

“Well I’ve actually _ done _something similar before so I win. Now hold him down, I’ve got this.”

I waited until Wells got a cloth in Jasper’s mouth and they all took their positions before pulling the knife out of the fire and letting it cool enough so it wouldn’t hurt more than it needs to. Then I braced myself and started cutting. As I predicted Jasper woke up and started screaming almost immediately. 

“Hold him down! She needs to be able to cut away the infected flesh!” Clarke yelled at the boys who were struggling to keep him still.

“I’ll help,” Cara said, appearing from the ladder and rushing over to Finn’s side to help hold him. 

“Stop it!” Octavia yelled, also appearing from down below, “you’re killing him!” 

“Shush” I said and kept cutting steadily, almost done cutting all the infection away. 

“She’s trying to save his life,” Finn informed Octavia, stopping her from trying to grab me.

“She can’t,” Bellamy said, stepping onto the floor as well. 

“Gee thanks for the vote of confidence,” I snapped at him, resisting the urge to look at him in favor of finishing what I was doing.

Wells stood up and stepped behind me, “Back off.”

Clarke began speaking as I finished my final cut, throwing the infected skin off to the side a little ways to dispose of later. 

“We didn’t drag him through miles of woods just to let him die,” Clarke said. 

_ You didn’t drag him at all, _I rolled my eyes. 

“Kids a goner, if you can’t see that you’re deluded. He’s making people crazy.” Bellamy protested.

“Sorry if Jasper’s an inconvenience to you, but this isn’t the Ark,” Clarke informed him, “Down here, every life matters.”

“Take a look at him. He’s a lost cause.”

I spoke up in a matter-of-fact tone. “Aren’t we all? Why shouldn’t we fight for him? What makes your life or anyone’s life more important? I don’t care what you say or what you do. I’m helping him until he gets better or dies. So back off, Blake.”

“Octavia,” Clarke added, “I’ve spent my whole life watching my mother heal people. If I say there’s hope, there’s hope.”

“This isn’t about hope,” Bellamy said, “it’s about guts. You two don’t have the guts to make the hard choices. I do. He’s been like this for three days. If he’s not better by tomorrow, I’ll kill him myself.”

“I’d like to see you try,” I said with a manic look in my eyes. 

Bellamy looked at me sternly before walking to the ladder, “Octavia, let’s go.”

“I’m staying here,” she informed him.

He hesitated for a moment before disappearing down the ladder. 

“Power-hungry, self-serving jackass. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” Monty said angrily before looking toward Octavia, “No offense.”

“Is it really that offensive if it’s a fact?” Cara questioned, shrugging.

“Yeah, Bellamy is all that, but he also happens to be right,” Finn interjected. 

“You don’t have to be here,” I snapped, glaring at him a bit.

Finn held his hands up in surrender and stopped talking after that. Everyone else wisely choose to follow his lead as Clarke handed me clean bandages to wrap Jasper’s wound in. I nodded in thanks and took the cleanest and smallest one and packed the open wound a bit so it could start healing properly and then wrapped some cloth around his chest with the help of Cara and Clarke holding him up. I nodded when I deemed myself done and sat back against the wall of the Dropship, frowning down at my bloody hands. 

Cara

I looked over at Nova, worried and saw her staring at the blood on her hands. I leaned over and poked her a couple of times on her shoulder, “Hello? Earth to Nova, come back to us.”

She looked up at me and blinked a few times before responding, “Huh? What?”

“Why don’t you go wash that off? Octavia and I have got him for now.” Monty suggested.

“Yeah, come on, I’ll help you.” I added, holding out a hand to help Nova back to her feet. Nova nodded and grabbed my hand before I guided her down the ladder and out the Dropship door. Next, I dragged her over to one of the water buckets and motioned for her to wash her hands off. Nova took a second but then she nodded and began washing them. While she did that I looked around camp. I spotted Murphy and Bellamy talking with a group of guys off to the edge of camp. Looking around again I saw Finn, Clarke, and Wells all talking with each other. _ Huh _. I glanced at Nova and saw she was done, so I grabbed her wrist and dragged her over towards the trio.

“Let’s go,” I heard Clarke say as soon as we got into hearing range.

“Go? Go where?” I questioned, bringing us to a stop in front of her.

“To the river.” Finn said pushing past us with Clarke by his side. 

“Hey, I know what this stuff looks like, do you?” Wells called out.

I glanced over to look into his hand and saw a red plant, “Yeah, that’s just red seaweed.” 

“Well I'm still coming.” 

“Alright, we’re coming too.” 

“We are?” Nova asked.

“Yes, we are,” I said back and started following Finn and Clarke out of camp. Nova and Wells followed behind me. 

“You know, you should uh, really reconsider this whole hating me thing. It’s not just the Grounders. We’re surrounded by criminals. We need each other. We’re gonna be friends again.” Wells stated towards Clarke as we began our journey deeper into the woods.

“You got my dad killed. Not possible” Clarke said dismissively. 

“This is Earth Clarke, anything’s possible.” Wells had hope in his voice.

“I’d let it go.” Finn chimed in.

“Yeah. Well I've known Clarke her whole life, I know her better than you ever will, so I’ll decide when to let it go.” Wells huffed.

I couldn’t take much more of this Wells and Clarke conflict, to me it was clear the boy had something he wanted to get off his chest. He wasn’t behaving like he was a guilty party, though the guilt from causing the tension was obvious. I heard a few bangs and looked up to see Finn hitting his hand against something, a big smile on his face.

“What did you find?” I asked him, taking a step closer to see for myself. He pulled what he had previously been banging on open and then it hit me, he found an old car.

“Ha!” Finn exclaimed, more than happy with his findings. 

“It’s an automobile” Wells said, stating what was now obvious.

“C’mon guys, this things been here 100 years, alright, it can wait. Jasper can’t” Clarke said urging us back on the path to the river.

“We’re totally coming back to look in the car.” Nova declared.

“I won’t be forgetting its location, don’t you worry about that.” I smiled. 

We walked for a while before finally arriving at the river. All of us lined up along the shoreline, I started scanning the water for the seaweed we needed.

“So what does this seaweed look like?” Clarke inquired.

“Like that.” I said, pointing toward the red patch that floated on the surface of the water.

“Hey that thing that bit Octavia, how big was it?” Wells asked, his eyes widening a bit.

“Big.” Finn stated before pulling the strap of his bag over his head. “We could rig this into some kind of a net. Find something to lower it into the water.”

As he spoke Nova made her way fearlessly into the water, grabbing two patches of red seaweed and holding them up back in our direction. Clarke followed her into the water and grabbed them from her hands, stuffing it into Finn’s bag. 

A swarm of birds suddenly appeared over the trees heading straight toward us. The birds looked frenzied as they came closer, dangerously low and approaching our heads. We ducked and covered just in time for them to dart right through us. 

“Let’s get out of here,” Wells said, keeping a calm demeanor. 

I motioned to Nova signaling her to head back towards the shore. She took a few steps before suddenly a horn sounded making her stop short. We all shared a look of confusion.

“Grounders?” Clarke suggested.

“It could be a war cry.” Wells added.

“Or a warning,” Finn stated, putting his bag back over his head.

The horn sounded off again, causing us to look around for the source. As I turned to where the birds came from I was startled to see a giant orange cloud heading our way.

“Get the hell out of the water!” I yelled back at Nova and Clarke, both of them stunned into stillness from the enormity of the cloud. At my words, Nova started walking forward again, pushing Clarke with her.

“What the hell is that?” Finn contemplated.

“Run!” Clarke yelled, running past us all.

We quickly followed her lead, all of us running back towards where we came from. As we charged through the woods I had a thought, “The car!”

Finn quickly redirected us and ran straight for the car. He jumped down onto it and ripped the door open. Without a word we all jumped in one by one, Finn jumping down last and slamming the door shut.

“It’s getting inside.” Clarke observed, stuffing a towel into an opening.

“Seal any openings.” Finn shouted out, coughing.

I grabbed a nearby cloth and started sealing the fog out. Once all the holes appeared to be sealed I sat on the floor with my back against the car and my legs stretched out, taking a deep breath.

“Earth Skills definitely didn’t prepare us for this kind of weather,” Nova said, sitting down opposite me and stretching her legs out as well, making sure our legs were pressed together.

“What was that? My skin feels weird,” Finn added, looking down at his arms.

“Looked like some kind of fog or something, I don’t know why it made us tingly though.” I said, shrugging.

“Radiation maybe,” Clarke guessed.

“Maybe,” I agreed, “Doesn’t look like it’s going to pass anytime soon though.”

Wells climbed over Nova and I’s legs and sat at the back of the car where there was more space. Clarke shot him a look and sat towards the front of the car, as far from Wells as possible. We all settled in for the long haul, resigning ourselves to the fact that we probably weren’t going to be able to leave within the next hour at least.

We waited, and waited, then waited some more. The fog seemed to be taking its sweet time to dissipate. Nova kept tapping her foot against my leg and I kept shooting her looks. We were definitely all started to get bored of sitting around.

Finn finally had enough and stood back up, looking out the window, “It’s still out there.”

“Look, we should just make a run for it, Jasper can’t wait much longer” Clarke said, impatient.

“We won’t survive. Two seconds of it touching Finn and his skin is still crawling. You got a death wish I should know about Clarke?” Nova informed her, “Trust me, I wish we could get to Jasper now, but we can’t.”

“Us dying in a cloud of acid fog isn’t going to help Jasper.” Finn stated as he began playing with something up front. Suddenly the dashboard he was playing with opened and he reached in to pull something out.

“Is that?” Clarke questioned.

“Booze” Finn said, smiling. He walked over to my side and sat down, bottle in hand. He brought it up to his mouth and quickly took a sip, ignoring whatever warning Clarke was trying to give.

“It’s whiskey I think. Better then the moonshine on Agro station” Finn said excitedly, taking one more sip before passing the bottle over to me. I smirked and took it from him, taking a swig of it myself before passing it to Nova. It burned a little going down, but it was a good burn, and it surprisingly tasted pretty good. I watched as Nova took a drink for herself before trying to hand the bottle over toward Wells.

“Alcohol’s toxic.” Wells informed her.

“This is Earth. Everything’s toxic.” Finn stated, rolling his eyes, “Plus it’s a time honored right of passage.”

“I’ll pass” Wells said back, glaring at him.

Nova shrugged and took another sip before suddenly Clarke yanked the bottle right out of her hands.

“Hey!” She exclaimed.

Clarke ignored her and took a long sip, “Far be it from me to sand in the way of tradition.”

“It’s been hours. Jasper-” Clarke spoke suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence we had all lapsed into a while back.

“Is in good hands. Octavia will take care of him” Finn cut her off. 

_ Great. Now he’s trying to comfort her. _

Clarke got an odd look on her face before speaking up again, “While we’re on the subject, why is it that everyone thinks me wanting Jasper to not die is a bad thing? Like I’m such a downer. I can be fun. Yeah. you think I’m fun, right?” She directed her last question right to Finn. 

“Oh yeah, among other things,” Finn answered, laughing. 

“You’re fun,” Wells suddenly spoke up, “You remember that time-”

“Remember that time you betrayed me and got my father executed?” Clarke snapped back, cutting him off before he could get any of the story out, “Yeah I remember. Where were we? Fun.”

“I think we all agree you’re not being very fun right now” Nova spoke up, smirking a bit.

“And why do you hate me? Why does everyone hate me?” Clarke snapped at her.

I sent her a warning glare, “Calm down. No one even knows you well enough to hate you yet.”

Nova but back in, “Well, Wells knows you well enough to hate you and you’ve been treating him like crap but he still likes you.”

“Well, since you brought it up, and I didn’t because I don't want to talk about it, what were you thinking Wells?” Clarke continued, like suddenly the mention of his name brought Wells back into her reality.

It was like the question slapped him in the face, he paused for a moment before answering, “I made a mistake, Clarke.”

Clarke laughed, the alcohol seemed to be taking over. “I made a mistake Clarke.” She repeated, noticeably holding back tears. “Not good enough. You know, I bet you couldn't wait to run to daddy. Tell him everything so that he’d finally believe you were the perfect son he always wanted.” Her words were cold, it was clear she was trying not to get emotional but the whiskey in her system had other plans.

“What do you want me to say?!” Wells shot back.

“I want an explanation.” Clarke demanded.

“I can't give you one. I thought I could trust him.” Wells told her, completely defeated. 

“Well I thought I could trust my best friend. Guess we were both wrong.” Clarke continued, letting the words pour out of herself. 

“I’m still your friend.” 

“No you're not. If you were my friend, you would walk out into that fog and never come back.” 

At that moment, the silence was deafening, like everyone was letting Clarke’s words sink in. She was hurt and I think she did want to forgive Wells, but she needed more time.

“Okay, how about we just...take it easy.” Finn said, finally breaking the silence as he took the bottle from Clarke’s hands.

“I have no idea how to do that.” Clarke spoke up again as I looked back over at Nova, seeing Wells take the bottle from the corner of my eyes. 

“So, we having fun yet?” Finn asked sarcastically. 

I let out a sigh and rolled my eyes at him, wondering how long the fog would keep the five of us trapped inside. 

Opening up the car door Clarke popped her head out and quickly surveyed the area, “The fog’s cleared, come on.” 

We gathered up our belongings and stepped out of the car to begin our walk back to camp. A scream echoed through the forest, the voice sounding almost familiar, it was a girl’s scream.

“Who was that?” Clarke questioned.

There was no time for an answer, instead there was another scream. We all looked around at each other and nodded, seemingly all agreeing to follow the sound. A third scream lingered through the trees, helping us find our way to a clearing. My eyes locked with Bellamy as Nova and I approached, taking in the scene in front of us. Atom’s body had been burned pretty badly and even though you could tell he was still alive, it was barely. Nova took a step closer, taking a good look at him. 

“He’s not going to last, we should keep moving.”

I nodded and figured that whatever was going on both Bellamy and Clarke could handle it, we weren’t needed here. “Come on, camp isn’t far.”

I started the way back towards camp, Nova silently following behind. I was concentrating to get us back and was slightly startled when Nova suddenly spoke again, “You know those weren’t normal burns, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Those were chemical burns, meaning whatever is in that fog is something we need to stay far away from.” 

“Well thankfully we didn’t let Clarke open the door of that car.” 

Back at camp Nova headed to the Dropship with the medicine for Jasper, I decided to see if we missed anything major while we were gone and wait for the others to arrive. 

“We’ve got to get to Jasper. I’ll need boiled water to make the medicine.” Clarke said entering camp and sending her request in Finn’s direction.

“Get Clarke whatever she needs.” Bellamy added.

“Nova and the medicine are waiting for you inside, she just needs the water.” 

“I better go get this grave dug,” Wells entered the camp and continued his walk past us, not stopping to wait for a response.

“It’s about time! They're gonna kill Jasper.” Octavia asked, stepping out from the main curtain of the Dropship.

“Nova’s got the medicine inside, they’ll bring in the water. Come on, lets go talk,” Clarke told her, taking her by the arm and trying to lead her away from the rest of the group that was entering camp. It wasn’t a secret that Octavia was interested in Atom, hell, Bellamy tied him up to a tree because of it but that didn’t mean she deserved to see him in that condition. I knew Clarke was trying to save her from that fate, but it was too late, Octavia’s eyes widened as they caught sight of the boys carrying the covered body, though she didn’t know yet that it belonged to Atom. 

“Octavia, just stay there, please, stay back.” Bellamy told her, wanting to keep the space between her and the body.

“Stop.” Octavia responded pushing past him to finally get close enough to pull his jacket from his face. “Atom.”

“There's nothing I could do.” Bellamy started to say but he was cut off by Octavia raising her hand.

“Don’t.” There were tears streaming down her face as she recovered the boy and started to take off in the opposite direction. Bellamy tried to stop her, but it was no use, she wasn’t slowing down to talk to anyone but I figured some time to herself might be beneficial. I figured now would be a good time to catch up with Nova, but the sight of Murphy made me stay. He was here the entire time, if anything was missed he’d be the person to talk to.

“Lose anyone here?” Bellamy asked him.

“No.” Murphy responded.

“Jasper?”

“Still breathing, barely. I tried to take him out but your psycho little sister-” 

At the mention of sister, you could tell a switch was flipped in his head, protective big brother instincts we’ll call it. Bellamy shoved him roughly before grabbing hold of his jacket.

“My what?! My what?!” Bellamy asked, daring him to finish his previous statement. 

“Your little sister.” Murphy correct himself, shoving back. 

“Yeah, that's right. My little sister. Got anything else you want to say about her?”

“Nothing. Sorry.” His words were cold, short, but enough to get Bellamy to back away. 

“Get him out of here.” He motioned to Atom’s body before taking off.

I waited for a moment, watching the movement around me before my eyes landed back on Murphy, seeing all the frustration in his face. It almost made me want to say something, but I didn’t know what. I opened my mouth in time to see him wind his arm back, sending his knife through the air and into the middle of the nearest tree. That’s one way to get your anger out.

I made my way over to the Dropship, so I could meet up with Nova and the others. I figured it’d be nice to see how Jasper was doing for myself. Clarke was getting ready to give him the tea as Nova moved some loose strands of hair out of his face and Octavia helped hold his head up. I looked around and saw Monty and Finn as well, thankful that some of us could come together and make sure he was okay.

“I’m really sorry about Atom.” Clarke looked up at Octavia after guiding the cup to Jasper’s lips.

“I guess we're going to have to get used to people dying down here, aren't we?” Octavia nodded her head. “But not you, you hear me? You're not allowed to die.” She continued, directing the last of her words to Jasper. His breathing returned to a normal pace, the tea working it’s magic as it made its way through his system. It gave the rest of us all a chance to breathe as well, not needing to worry about if he’d last through the night anymore. Clarke mentioned there was something she needed to do as we started to shift to give Jasper some space to regain his strength. We sat in a circle a fair distance away but he was still in eyeshot for everyone, all seemingly letting out a breath in unison. 

I pulled the bottle of whiskey from earlier out of my jacket pocket, taking a quick sip before passing it in Monty’s direction, “We all need a sip.”

“Smooth.” He responded, coughing a few times before passing it again.

“Disgusting. I love it.” Octavia winced, continuing the circle.

Nova let out a sign before taking a long sip, holding the liquid in her mouth before handing the bottle over to Finn.

“Can I uh get a hit of that?” 

The bottle was inches from Finn’s lips when Jasper’s voice rang through the ship, almost causing Nova to spit the liquor out of her mouth.

“Jasper!” Monty exclaimed.

We all rushed to our feet, Finn swapped the bottle for one of the canteens filled with water.

“Let’s start with the soft stuff,” He suggested, guiding his hand behind Jasper’s neck to assist him with getting a drink.

“Welcome back buddy.” Finn smiled.

Monty grabbing his head as Jasper looked around the room and I couldn’t help but follow his gaze. We were all genuinely smiling at him, happy that he wasn’t going to be added to our growing body count outside. I wasn’t aware of how badly I wanted Jasper to survive until now, seeing the thankful look on his face. 

“Was that a dream or did I get speared?” He asked.

“You’ll have a very impressive scar to prove it.” Clarke said ascending from the ladder.

“My savior.”Jasper said, looking over at her.

“Really?” Nova scoffed. “I’m right here.” The surprise in her voice was obvious, but I don’t think anyone else noticed the pain. She grabbed the bottle of whiskey from the table and moved to the other side of the room. 

“Thank you for not dying. I don't think I could’ve taken that today.” Clarke told him, filling the silence. His eyes followed Nova, blinking he brought his attention back over to everyone else. 

“Wow, well i'll try not to die tomorrow too, if that's cool.” Jasper joked causing a small laugh from all of us. 

He looked over at Octavia, “Oh, hello.” He continued with a smile before we all laughed again and he slowly drifted off to sleep. 

I walked over to Nova and comfortingly placed my hand on her back, “it’s okay, he didn’t know...he’s been out of it for a while.” She handed the bottle to me before giving me a half smile and nodded her head, she knew it was the truth even if it didn’t make her feel any better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! We're super sorry for the delay with this chapter and should be back on a regular posting schedule from now on. We're super excited to continue sharing Cara and Nova's story with everyone! Please remember to leave Kudos, Comments, or message us. We'd definitely love to hear from you all so don't be afraid to let us know what you think. Thanks again!  
♡ Blondie and Red


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